Busy Parent Briefing: Hugo Chavez Has Died

It was no secret that Hugo Chavez had been ill, really really ill. It was announced on Tuesday that the president of Venezuela has died from cancer. Chavez had been suffered from a non-disclosed form of cancer for two years and died this week at the age of 58.

The end seemed near yesterday when Information Minister Ernesto Villegas went on the state-run station VTV to announce that Chavez’s condition had gotten very bad saying, “There is a worsening of the respiratory function, related to the state of his depressed immune system,” adding that he was battling a new and “severe” infection and that his condition was “very delicate.” He added that, “The president continues to hold fast to Christ and to life, aware of the difficulties he’s facing.”

Chavez had a 14-year rule of Venezuela and had just been re-elected in October of 2012.

Chavez has been a polarizing figure globally and had been a strong voice in not just his own country but worldwide. And like his life, his death does not come without controversy. Vice President Nicolás Maduro this week alluded that Chavez may have been poisoned. “We have no doubt that Commandant Chávez was attacked with this illness, we have not a single doubt,” Maduro said. “The established enemies of our land specifically tried to harm the health of our leader.”

He added ,”there have been too many cases throughout history, including the most recent, of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, it’s widely known that was poisoned medically.”

And one of the main enemies in his book is the U.S.A.. The government today expelled three US officials including military attaché David Delmonaco, who is being expelled for “conspiring against the government and the armed forces.”

But some see this as just a ploy from Maduro and that he, “is trying to assert himself as a leader. This could be seen as the first move in the next election,” as Adam Isacson, a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America explained.

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